Israeli startup Innoviz Technologies Inc., in partnership with investor and auto parts maker Magna International, today said it has signed a deal to supply BMW Group with LiDAR units for BMW’s forthcoming range of autonomous vehicles.

The deal is notable because it’s the first big deal for Innoviz since it announced the commercial availability of its high-definition, solid-state InnovizPro LiDAR product in January. Claimed to leapfrog other LiDAR systems in accuracy and reliability even in challenging environments, the platform leverages a combination of proprietary software, microelectromechanical systems and detector designs.

Also of note, it’s the first time a major automotive manufacturer has signed a deal for solid-state LiDAR technology. LiDAR, a form of radar technology, has been around for 50 years, but solid-state LiDAR is a next-generation technology that offers a compact unit with no moving parts. It promises to deliver sharper vision at a much lower price than existing systems, such as those used on self-driving vehicles from Uber Technologies Inc. and Alphabet Inc. division Waymo.

Under the deal, Innoviz is responsible for the design, manufacturing and testing of the LiDAR unit, as well as providing the advanced computer vision software stack, such as object detection, tracking, classification and other functions used for autonomous driving insights and decisions. Magna’s role will be overseeing the integration with BMW and the testing of the autonomous driving system.

“The Innoviz and Magna teams collaborated to meet BMW requirements in quality and validation plans and functional safety,” Omer Keilaf, co-founder and chief executive officer of Innoviz, said in a statement. “Automakers have been looking for a LiDAR technology provider to deliver a mass-market solution.”

Image: Innoviz